ERIC Number: ED227395
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1982-Aug
Pages: 16
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Primary Prevention through Organizational Change: Improving Program Evaluation Practices.
Davis, Donald D.
While efforts directed toward aiding the individual elderly will continue to be necessary, the widening gap between seniors' needs and available resources requires broader based interventions at the organizational level. In order to move such organizations to adopt program evaluation as a technique for improving organizational effectiveness, a longitudinal field experiment was designed to change the program evaluation practices of organizations providing service to the elderly in three regions in Michigan. Agencies (N=43) participated in a workshop designed to disseminate knowledge of program evaluation methods and were subsequently assigned to a consultation intervention or a control group. The consultation intervention consisted of six, weekly consultation sessions of two and one half hours each, focusing on goal setting techniques. Scores from workshop participants and others were combined to provide a single organization score. Analyses of responses showed strong support for the consultation intervention, with participants in consultation reporting greater rates of program evaluation activities. The findings suggest that the provision of workshops, the method of choice for changing practices in human service organizations, may not be as effective as participative goal-setting. (MCF)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Michigan State Office of Services to the Aging, Lansing.
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A